Ross and Ray Ray

Canada? I like it!  After getting up at 6 in the morning, once the time difference was factored in it was 6 in the evening when we arrived. Rachel had shared the flight with a man who was very precious about his space and a Japanese Canadian girl. I spent the time between a fat sportsfan and a bimbo with a 3 month old puppy named Martini who was wearing a white t-shirt which read 'bite me'. We got a shuttle to our hostel where we were greeted by a friendly vegitarian, dropped our bags and went out to roam the city. I really can't explain why but instantly we knew we were not in America. Later on someone suggested to me that you don't need to be concious of which pocket your wallet is in ... read more

Our first flight from Christchurch to Aukland was entirely uneventful so they decided to mix things up a little and delay our flight from Aukland to LA by 5 hours on top of the 3 we already had to wait. This was not much fun and the only food on offer was burger king which was not a good start to two weeks in America. We finally arrived in LA (strangely enough before we actually left Aukland when you account for the time difference) and caught a shuttle to the car rental place. This saw the begining of the upgrades. We had spent time in Queenstown finding the cheapest possible car yet when we were offered the enhanced insurance option we felt it prudent to accept. We were then offered sat nav and given the distance ... read more

Our magic bus arrived on time and we were on our way to Taupo or at least we thought we were.  It now transpires that we may have benifitted from actually reading about our bus ticket that we booked so many months ago. The magic bus is less like a Greyhound bus and more like an old persons day out to Bogna Regis bus. Instead of taking the 1 hour drive to Taupo, we took a 10 hour diversion over to Waitomo. In the afternoon I decided that this really wasn't such a bad thing because we get to see stuff that we wouldn't ordinarily have seen. For instance Thumper (our driver) took us to see his mum at the shearning shed who owns 350 rabbits and makes stuff from their fur, she claims the rabbits ... read more

After my last blog we stumbled into a puzzle shop and spent three hours talking to a man named Steve who may now be one of my favourite people in the world. The casino was not as successful as I had anticipated. The first poker table we came across held a big blind of $8000 and I decided that it was not an ideal night for poker. Instead we spent 10 fun filled minutes losing $40 on roulette and blackjack.  Before that we'd been to the top of the skytower for some steak and cocktails which I would recommend. If anyone does dine in the revolving restaurant in futre, be sure to slap the waiter who called me a gypsey. The next day we caught an early bus for a scenic drive to Tauranga and I ... read more

Our day at Mossman Gorge was not as fantastic as planned.  The main attraction for us was a 2k rainforest walk which was entirely unaccessable due to the fact that 'Rex Creek' bridge was closed for maintenance. Nice one dad! On our way back we stopped at palm cove and Rachel was thrilled to gave returned to the restaurant she first visited in Australia over three and a half years ago. It was only when we settled the bill and left that she admitted it was most likely a completely different restaurant. When we were almost back at the campground we stopped to use the Cairns Aboriginal Cultural centre as a boomerang shop. For those of you planning to do this I would like to advise that it is slightly frowned upon. Particularly when you suggest ... read more

Once again, everything seems a very long time ago now but I shall attempt to recap. We went went straight through Bundaberg town centre, past the rum distilery and onto Bargara beach.  The place wasn't that great and made slightly worse by the fact that some backpacker was murdered there a few years ago.  We attempted to rent either bikes or surfboards but no one wanted to help us so we settled for a walk where we saw some squashed cane toads, some spiders so big that I wanted to cry and a turtle exhibit with no turtles. The following day we made the drive to Rockhampton. After a long drive and a few swear words at the ridiculous number of intersections in Rockhampton centre we arrived at the Dreamtime Aboriginal cultural centre just in time ... read more

After leaving prawn king city we set sail for Brisbane. We got there prettly early and had to fill the time in with some free McDonalds Wi fi (this is somewhat of a regular occurence which needs to stop) and a walk to the river. On returning from our walk we found a friendly Barton there to greet us and before long Juliette was also home. Three of us had some slow afternoon beers and a catch up whilst Bart went to see a friend then we hit Brisbane for some jäger bombs and air guitar. I'm not sure if it's just because it's Rachels family but despite being the first i'd met them i took and instant liking to Bart and Juliette and it felt like we'd been friends for years. We had an awesome night ... read more

Byron bay was a cool place and is much as I didn't want to admit it I can quite clearly see how people with time on their hands could get caught up there.  At first it looked like a bit of an under eighteens fashion show but after just a few hours we could see that that was not the case. The atmosphere was really chilled and the beach was amazing. To get to know the place we had a few glasses of perspective then way too much food. I quite literally had to poo and sleep. The next day consisted of some much missed lazing on the beach as we haven't had a chance to do this since leaving Thailand. We also took a trip to Nimbin because people said we should and the rumors ... read more

Just making use of some free wifi on Coffs Harbour. We returned to the Blue Montains in the morning and after a short walk to see the Katoomba Falls we were still hungry for more and ended up at Scenic World. For the bargain price of $19 each we took a ride on the worlds steepest railway had a walk around the old coal mining district in the mountain via the boardwalk then headed back to the top in a cable car. Rachel had in fact done all of these things when she was last in Australia but when she reminded me of this I told her to be quiet. The scenery really was amazing and I would definitely recommend it. Next we set a course for Newcastle and whilst I will admit we did not ... read more

Its been a while since Ive done this so no doubt Im going to miss a whole load of information bit here goes. We had gotten into a bit of a routine of driving to our next destination then finding a place to stay when we got there. Somewhat naively we did not attempt to introduce a different routine when entering Melbourne. Therefore what we effectively did was drove into the centre of London in rush hour. However thanks to my co drivers navigational skills we were soon out of the city and at our camp site. this is where we found the first of many miserable Australians, its so fascinating to see that in the rural areas you will only meet happy friendly people yet as soon as you reach the larger cities no one ... read more